Penang and East Sumatran Ports 1824

The following abstract comes from the beginning of a book published by the Government of Prince of Wales Island in 1824. It bore the long title An exposition of the Politician and Commercial Relations of the Government of Prince of Wales Island with the States on the East Coast of Sumatra from Diamond Point to Siack.

The volume is a good reminder of what the cultural, commercial and political diversity in the Straits of Malacca looked like before late colonial empire-building and modern nation-states divided the region and simplified our understanding of that diversity.

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